How to search for stuff in your old Skype messages [Solved]

When searching through old Skype messages it’s often difficult because you need to know exactly which chat or chat-group the message was in before being able to press Ctrl-F to find the text that you are looking for.  So, if you have a lot of chats or chat groups then this can be an impossible task. 

Here’s an easy method to search all your messages for specific test without knowing the specifics about which chat it was in.

 

 

 

Skype stores all its information about past chat in a database called SQLite.  So, you need to use a free database browser called SqliteBrowser to use browse/search/extract the data.
Download SqliteBrowser for free from here [7MB]:  http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlitebrowser

Open your Skype account’s database file eg: C:\Users\<<your windows username>>\AppData\Roaming\Skype\>>your Skype username>>\main.db
The messages are stored in the “Messages” table.
If your sql statement writing skills are good then use the “Execute SQL” tab to find the information,
OR, if your Excel filtering skills are better than your sql skills, then you can export the data to a .csv file and then process it using Excel:
File->Export->Table as csv file->select “Messages” table and give it a filename.

Open the csv file in Excel and use its search and/or filter tools to find the data that you are looking for.

Hope this helps?  Tell me in the comments…

Sign-in error for name@gmail.com on Android device [SOLVED!]

All of a sudden logging in to my Google Play account was giving an error and I seemed to be locked out!  Bad situation to be in – I couldn’t upgrade any of my apps – and I needed to do an upgrade because WhatsApp had expired – with error “This version of WhatsApp is too old – you need to upgrade”… OK, but I first needed to solve the error “Sign-in error for name@gmail.com”.

I Googled a bit, then a lot more but nothing worked - then I decided to try something out – I changed the language of my account – I noticed that it wasn’t set to anything.  I logged in to my Google account, then clicked “Account” and saw the “Default languages”: 


I changed it from “Select a language…” to English (United States):
 
Then I tried to login on my Android phone and to my absolute amazement I was logged in :)  No error, just logged in.
I could then switch to the WhatsApp upgrade warning message and update to the latest version – problem solved!
This is one of those out of the blue, accidental fixes that somehow worked… I was amazed and I hope this helps someone out there – please let me know by adding a comment.

iPad solution for cheaper calls than Telkom [Solved]

I recently replied to a question on the MyBroadBand forums. Ettiene69 asked: “Is there any VOIP App or service provider which I can use on my iPad, which IS ACTUALLY CHEAPER than normal Telkom or Cell Phone Rates?”

I provided this 3 step solution:
Step 1: Install the MobileVoip app (available for iPhone, iPad, iPod, Symbian, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone):  iStore link here: http://itunes.apple.com/app/mobilevoip/id362528311?mt=8
 
Step 2: Register and purchase 10 Euros of any Voip provider - for South Africa I recommend Rynga: http://www.rynga.com/calling-rates.html#letter-S
Rates comparison:
Rynga rate for South Africa (Landline)  FREE (for 120 days, then R0.31c per minute)  [Telkom rate is R0.57c per min]
Rynga rate for South Africa (Mobile)    R0.558 per minute [Telkom rate is R1.35 per min]
Telkom rates from here:  http://www.telkom.co.za/general/pricelist/automaticexchanges_worldcall.html
See Rynga’s rates list here: http://www.rynga.com/en/calling-rates.html

Step 3: Purchase data for your iPad - for low usage per month, I recommend CellC prepaid:
http://handytechtips.blogspot.com/2012/04/winner-of-no-contract-non-expiring-pre.html 

Remember to add the CellC data costs per minute to your total call cost comparison… Working on about 1MB per minute for a voice call – add CellC’s rate of 16c per minute to the call:

Rynga rate for South Africa (Landline) FREE+16c per minute (for 120 days, then 31c+16c=47c per minute) [Telkom rate is R0.57c per min]
Rynga rate for South Africa (Mobile) 56c+16c=72c per minute [Telkom rate is R1.35 per min]


So, with all 3 steps done you should be able to take your iPad anywhere in South Africa, start up the MobileVoip app and make calls cheaper than using Telkom and cell phone rates :) :)
At home or when within range of WiFi point, switch to WiFi and save even more. 

Let me know if it works for you.